"[this thinking] perpetuates the myth that, through technological developments, humans are destined to leave Earth and find a utopia elsewhere. After all, who c

"[this thinking] perpetuates the myth that, through technological developments, humans are destined to leave Earth and find a utopia elsewhere. After all, who cares about sustaining the planet when our destiny is to leave it?" This is a straw man argument, and further more the OP makes the straw-man look like Trump, saying it's Trump's priority to do these things. Step back, and we see spending money on space exploration and NASA has led to numerous innovations useful here on Earth. There's also the inspiration, the joy, the passion, that space exploration will bring. This should be a priority; definitely not the top priority, but we should spend more on space exploration than we do on baseball or cosmetics or rims for our cars.